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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [69r] (137/336)
The record is made up of 1 volume (168 folios). It was created in 1982?. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
Her# the air was full of the smell of spiced meat grilling over open charcoal
fires and tables and rough beaches were being made ready for customers.
Nearby were the stalls of the milk sellers and beyond them, fruit stalls with
masses of bananas and papayas, and on the stalls of the sweet makers were
great heaps of wonderfully coloured nougat and Turkish Delight covered with
icing sugar and stuck with almonds. It was all intensely Interesting and
exciting and the kindly night hid for a time the barrenness beyond the gay
lights and poverty was forgotten as the fishermen and their friends enjoyed
their annual holiday. It was all very simple, but then they were simple
folk and derived their pleasure from such simple things. They were not to be
pitied, rather were they to be envied.
On level ground at the end of the street of stalls, musicians were beating
drums and playing on reed pipes and the men in pairs were dancing to a hand-
clapping accompaniment from the circle of spectators. As soon as one pair
wearied, another stepped foxward from the spectators and went through the
intricate steps of the local dance. There were no women dancers. No decent
woman would ever dance in public. I watched the dancers for a while and '
then left my friends to their enjoyment and accompanied by Said, who refused
point blank to allow me to return alone, I strolled back along the beach to
Burelkha and so to bed.
* * *
In December 1961 I paid a short visit to Aden to Inspect the branch of the
Bank of which I had become a Director and one afternoon I had occasion to
visit Little Aden. I drove over in a Mercedes saloon car placed at my dis
posal by the Audhall Sultan. I passed the Union Club, no longer on the
verge of the sea, but well Inland as a result of land reclamation carried
out by the Port Trust. Never again will the monsoon swell break over its
terrace in clouds of spray. The coal grounds in Tawahi had disappeared and
had been replaced by shops and blocks of flats and the trees of the gardens
obscured the view of the shops in the Crescent and only by careful searching
could the statue of Queen Victoria be found among them. More trees line the
football ground which is no longer backed by the open harbour but here, as
everywhere, more offices and flats had sprung up, not altogether an improve
ment. The Ma*alla plain was one vast built-up area and the dual carriageway
of "Queensway" swept majestically forward between six and eight storey blocks
About this item
- Content
This volume is a set of typewritten memoirs by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, a retired officer of the British Indian Army and the Indian Political Service The branch of the British Government of India with responsibility for managing political relations between British-ruled India and its surrounding states, and by extension the Gulf, during the period 1937-47. . Hickinbotham held various positions in India and in the Middle East, and these memoirs recount stories from his time in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Quetta, Persia [Iran], Aden, Audhali, Bahrain and North Waziristan.
The memoirs were most likely completed in 1982-83; they cover the period 1927-1982, although most of the chapters relate to events from the 1930s and 1940s.
Hickinbotham writes not only about his official duties but also about various trips taken during periods of leave. Below is a list of the chapters, with a short summary of each:
- 'No Medals This Time' (ff 3-6) – details of an incident in Kuwait involving a dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. that caught fire off the foreshore at Shuwaik [Ash Shuwaykh]
- 'The Silver Coin' (ff 7-10) – thoughts on the use of the Maria Theresa thaler in Arabia
- 'The Golden Dagger' (ff 11-36) – an account of Hickinbotham's unofficial visit to Riyadh to meet Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] in May 1942
- 'The Brass Pencase' (ff 37-53) – memories of a journey undertaken from Quetta to Europe via north Persia in 1927, travelling in a Fiat Tourer with Colonel T Nisbet (also referred to as the 'purple emperor'), on what Hickinbotham claims to have been the first trip taken by car from India to the Mediterranean
- 'The Bronze Boy' (ff 54-72) – reminiscences of weekends spent in 'Little Aden' (a rocky peninsula seven miles west of Aden), in 1938, and a later visit, in December 1961
- 'The Silver Letter Case' (ff 73-118) – details of a ten-day trip on the Audhali plateau in the summer of 1938, and a return visit, in December 1960 (the chapter ends with remarks on the situation in Yemen generally from the late sixties to the time of writing, i.e. 1982)
- 'The Agate Ring' (ff 119-144) – memories of travelling in Oman during the summer of 1940 and how this compared with Hickinbotham's last visit to the country in 1980
- 'The Pearl Tie Pin' (ff 145-151) – thoughts and anecdotes on the pearl trade in Bahrain
- 'A Point of View' (ff 152-157) – a story told to Hickinbotham, possibly fictional, of a pearl trader in the Gulf who lost his fortune and livelihood, and eventually his sanity
- 'Snakes Alive!!' (ff 158-161) – an account of a near-fatal encounter with a krite [krait] in Waziristan
- 'The Queen's Visit' (ff 162-168) – memories of the Queen's visit to the Aden Protectorate in 1954, where Hickinbotham was serving as Governor.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (168 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume contains an index of chapter headings on folio 2, which includes some handwritten corrections and annotations.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 168; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional mixed foliation/pagination sequence is also present in parallel between ff 3-168.
Condition: The original plastic comb binding ring has been replaced with a wider one to facilitate flat opening of the volume. Polyester film covers have been added to protect the first and last folios.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [69r] (137/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x00008a> [accessed 4 July 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F226/13
- Title
- '"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE'
- Pages
- 1r:168v
- Author
- Hickinbotham, Sir Tom
- Usage terms
- The copyright status is unknown. Please contact [email protected] with any information you have regarding this item.